CONNECTING AFRICA
CONNECTING AFRICA Vodacom Group Chief Technlogy Officer, Dejan Kastelic, outlines the group’s ambitious vision for Africa and notes how satellite technology is set to revolutionise a range of sectors. What is Vodacom’s current footprint in Africa? Vodacom Group is a leading and purpose-led African connectivity, digital and financial services company. The Group, including Safaricom, serves a combined 196.2-million customers across the continent, with operations in South Africa, Tanzania, the DRC, Mozambique, Lesotho, Egypt and partners in Safaricom Kenya and Safaricom Ethiopia. Our population reach across our markets exceeds 500-million people. Through Vodacom Business Africa (VBA), we offer businessmanaged services to enterprises in over 45 countries on the continent. What is Vodacom’s vision for Africa? Our purpose as a company is to connect for a better future and our vision is connected to our purpose. At the core of our strategy is our vision to be the leading connectivity, digital and financial services company on the continent, connecting the next 100-million Africans. Is the company positive about the continent as a place to do business? Yes, and testament to this is our acquisition of a 55% shareholding in Vodafone Egypt. We are excited by the opportunities for further synergies that our strengthened footprint from Cape to Cairo presents given our ambition to create a digital society and drive inclusion for all. Core to this is our ongoing investment in Fintech, which includes M-Pesa and VodaPay. The impact of fintech on the African continent is extensive, with the potential to improve more lives significantly and we’ve been able to use our expertise to enable the launch of M-Pesa in Africa’s second most populous country, Ethiopia. Offering fintech platforms on the continent opens up the potential of financial services to a largely unbanked population through the power of mobile technology. We look forward to being part of the fintech developments in Africa, which have the potential to create a game-changing impact on the continent. What are some of the challenges presented by the African market? Reducing the cost of deploying and operating rural networks to ensure that more people are connected remains a challenge in the context of exchange rates and having to source goods in hard currencies. Beyond mobile connectivity, access, 4G smartphone penetration and device affordability is another challenge, but bridging the digital divide on the continent remains a priority for us. Our footprint across Africa provides us with the opportunity to play a significant role in the continent’s socio-economic development by creating a digital society and driving inclusion for all. Vodacom’s pledge to democratise Internet access for over 500-million people across our markets is one we are tackling by focusing on accessibility of devices, including smart-feature phones. Is the Rural Coverage Acceleration Programme only in South Africa or also in the rest of Africa? This is available in all countries. The Group’s Rural Coverage Acceleration Programme is aimed at expanding network coverage to people who live in deep rural areas. So far, we have rolled out close to 9 000 sites in some of our markets, covering both 4G and 3G. We intend expanding this through strategic partnerships that will help achieve the goal of building low-cost sites and making 4G devices accessible. Partnerships have already helped launch low-cost 3G- or 4G-enabled smart-feature phones in Tanzania where Vodacom partnered with KaiOS Technologies to launch the 4G-enabled Smart Kitochi. Nearly 9 000 sites have been reached as part of the Rural Coverage Acceleration Programme. Credit: Vodacom Vodacom has partnered with KaiOS Technologies to launch the 4G-enabled Smart Kitochi in Tanzania. Credit: Vodacom 22
BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE Dejan Kastelic, Vodacom Group Chief Technology Officer Connecting Africa is a priority. Credit: Vodacom The adoption of smart-feature phones among Tanzania’s mobile-Internet users is estimated at 10%, slower than in other African markets, but progressing, nonetheless. Is Vodacom upbeat about fintech and its partnerships in Africa? Yes, our financial services business is integral to our purpose-led business model, the largest component of our new services revenue and a clear strategic priority. The VodaPay and M-Pesa SuperApps, strategic partnerships and African expansion are key enablers to scaling our financial services and building a pan-African fintech ecosystem that supports e-commerce, banking and financial services that offer a single customer experience. Our landmark partnership with technology leader Alipay provided an excellent opportunity to reinvent the mobile fintech ecosystem for consumers and merchants. Through this partnership, we could leverage the world-class technology of Alipay to develop the VodaPay super-app and promote greater financial inclusion for all South Africans. Bridging the digital divide on the continent remains a priority for us We have also entered into a strategic partnership with Visa to introduce virtual cards linked to VodaPay and M-Pesa across our markets to accelerate the merchant payments ecosystem. This includes the enablement and adoption of our SuperApp in all markets where M-Pesa is available. Please explain how satellite could be a game-changer in terms of African telecoms? Satellite technology offers a versatile and scalable solution for enhancing connectivity on a global scale. The ability of satellites to cover vast areas, provide rapid deployment and support various applications makes them a game-changer in addressing connectivity challenges, particularly in remote and underserved regions. LEO satellites in particular have the potential to revolutionise the satellite industry by addressing key challenges such as latency, data throughput, global coverage and cost-effectiveness. LEO satellites operate at altitudes ranging from approximately 160km to 2 000km above the earth’s surface. This proximity results in significantly lower signal-travel times, leading to lower latency compared to higher-altitude satellite orbits. The closer proximity to earth also allows for more efficient use of available frequency bands, enabling faster data-transfer rates. This is particularly important for applications like real-time communications, online gaming, bandwidthintensive applications and video conferencing. As technology continues to advance and more LEO satellite constellations become operational, they are likely to play a significant role in shaping the future of satellite-based communications and services. How far advanced is Vodacom in talks with satellite providers? How long before it becomes a reality? Vodacom is continuing to work with Vodafone and AST SpaceMobile to develop the first space-based mobile network to connect directly to consumer 4G and 5G smartphones without specialised hardware. In September 2023, Vodafone and AST SpaceMobile successfully completed the world’s first spacebased 5G voice call using an unmodified Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone and AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3 test satellite. In a separate test, AST SpaceMobile, supported by Vodafone, also broke its previous space-based cellular broadband data session record by achieving a download rate of nearly 14Mbps. With its ability to provide mobile broadband connectivity to standard, unmodified mobile devices across the continent, this new technology has the potential to connect millions of people in the remotest regions to the Internet for the first time. Vodacom, in collaboration with Vodafone and Amazon, also plans to use Project Kuiper’s network to extend the reach of 4G and 5G services to more customers in Africa. 23
